PIL awards contract to build 14,000 TEU LNG container vessels

Pacific International Lines (PIL) has announced the award of a contract to Jiangnan Shipyard (Group) for the construction of four 14,000 TEU container vessels.

The vessels will be equipped with dual-fuel engines and auxiliaries which can run on both Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) or low sulphur fuel oil.

The four vessels will be delivered progressively from 2H2024 through to 1H2025. When delivered, the vessels will become the largest container vessels in PIL’s fleet and the first vessels in the fleet to run on LNG.

Mr Lars Kastrup, Co-President and Executive Director, PIL, said: “This contract to build the four 14,000 TEU LNG dual-fuelled vessels marks our plan to continue optimising our fleet to serve our customers in our key markets.

“The LNG option represents an important step in PIL’s decarbonisation journey, and as BioLNG and e-Methane as well as other technology solutions mature, we aspire to continue to be at the forefront of these developments to achieve the zero emission target.”

The four vessels will be equipped with an ammonia intermediate ready fuel tank which makes it possible to retrofit the vessels to run on ammonia when the technology is commercially available.

This is the latest investment the shipping industry has made into LNG-powered container vessels. In September last year shipping line ZIM exercised the option to charter five 7,000 LNG-powered vessels.

PIL is part of a group of shipping lines including Hapag-Lloyd and Ocean Network Express (ONE) that recently announced bolstered East Africa – Asia services from March 2022 onwards.

Source: https://www.porttechnology.org/